Evening Brief: Tam recommends use of masks when physical distancing not possible

Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam speaks with reporters at a media availability in West Block to update Canadians on the response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on May. 5, 2020. Andrew Meade/iPolitics

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The Lead

Canada’s chief public health officer is now recommending the use of non-medical masks in situations where physical distancing cannot be maintained.

Dr. Theresa Tam made the announcement Wednesday during her regular media availability in Ottawa, saying her recommendation changed after receiving new information about asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19.

“Although we don’t fully understand their role in transmission, it is an added layer of protection, even for people who don’t have symptoms,” she explained.

Big businesses can now apply for federal loans under a new program meant to stave off bankruptcies, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced Wednesday.

Morneau offered new details on the Large Employers Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF), which provides a last resort line of credit for firms with more than $300 million in annual revenues and requesting more than $60 million in loans. Companies can apply through the Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation, a subsidiary of the Canada Development Investment Corporation.

The LEEFF will offer loans for the next 12 months, with the size of each loan based on a case-by-case basis dependent on the firms’ needs. A minimum loan under LEEFF is $60 million and there is no ceiling on a maximum amount.

In the five years before COVID-19 hit Canada, long-term care homes across Ontario were hit with nearly three times as many outbreaks of respiratory infections than retirement homes, documents show — illustrating longstanding vulnerabilities in the sector most devastated by COVID-19.

Year after year since at least 2015, annual respiratory pathogen bulletins compiled by Public Health Ontario showed long-term care homes vastly outpacing other institutional settings in terms of outbreaks of influenzas, rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, combined outbreaks and other infections. Specifically, out of 8,670 respiratory infection outbreaks that were documented in Ontario institutions from Sept. 1, 2014 to Aug. 31, 2019 — including outbreaks in hospitals, correctional facilities, group homes, shelters and retirement homes, though not schools — 59 per cent were in long-term care.

An Ontario court has overturned Jim Karahalios’ disqualification from the Conservative leadership race, though he still might not be able to make onto the ballot because of what he describes as the party’s “heavy-handed” sanctions.

A lawyer and creator of the “Axe the Carbon Tax” campaign, Karahalios broke the news on Wednesday in a Twitter thread that included a link to the ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

He said while the court overturned his disqualification by the Conservative Party’s four-person appeals subcommittee and ordered that donations should be returned to his campaign account, it did not “have jurisdiction to judge [the] appropriateness” of sanctions levied against his bid.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s contemplating whether to resurrect plans to invite G7 leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to a summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in June. Trump on Wednesday tweeted about holding the meeting on or near the original June 10-12 timeline at the rural retreat, which is in Maryland. “Now that our Country is ‘Transitioning back to Greatness,’ I am considering rescheduling the G7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David,” Trump wrote. (Canadian Press)

An F-35 jet crashed during a routine exercise near a U.S. Air Force base in Florida late Tuesday, the second crash involving an advanced aircraft in less than a week. The pilot “successfully ejected” and was taken to a hospital on Elgin Air Force Base “for evaluation and monitoring,” the Air Force said in a statement, adding that the pilot is in “stable condition.” (CNN)

Michigan’s governor declared a state of emergency Tuesday night after rising waters crashed through two dams and forced thousands to evacuate. Officials with the Michigan city of Midland warned residents that the Edenville Dam, along the Tittabawassee River, failed around 5:45 p.m., and that the Sandord Dam began to overflow around 6:50 p.m. Since Monday, storms have produced more than eight inches of rain that overflowed the dams, causing downstream flooding in Midland County. (ABC News)

Authorities in the Netherlands think a mink might have infected a human with COVID-19 and are instituting mandatory testing at all mink farms in the Netherlands. “On the basis of new research results from the ongoing research into COVID-19 infections at mink farms, it is plausible that an infection took place from mink to human,” the Dutch government said in a statement late Tuesday night. (CNN)